Brown Rover GF148 - progress.

Hi Warren,

The hesitation that you describe sounds to me like a fuel delivery problem. Could be just the filter which needs changing.. :?

All this is an excellent reason why you need to drive your Rover as much as possible. Try and aim for at least 3000 Miles per year, and if possible double that. The more you drive it, the happier it shall be.. :D

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hi Warren,

The hesitation that you describe sounds to me like a fuel delivery problem. Could be just the filter which needs changing.. :?

All this is an excellent reason why you need to drive your Rover as much as possible. Try and aim for at least 3000 Miles per year, and if possible double that. The more you drive it, the happier it shall be.. :D

Ron.
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Ron could be on the money there Warren.
My P6 has two fuel filters . A primary fibre fuel filter sits under the fuel tank that tends to get overlooked . It sits inside the fuel cutoff tap . Catches all sorts of crud straight out of the tank . Just needs a clean off with petrol and refitted .
Check to see if you have one sitting down aft .
Mines got A/c and has all sorts of quirky add ons from the factory that aren't standard on most .
Nec minut - Vaaroom . I hope
 
I forgot to mention the hesitation was accompanied by (at least a couple of times) a POP! when I put my foot down, after which the car immediately took off like a rocket. Only the one fuel filter, I can confirm. I took the sender unit out the other day to clean it, and thoroughly inspected the fuel lines. It won't hurt to replace the filter, they're not exactly moonbeams to buy.

Just a thought. There are two fuel lines under the car, three if you count the return. The one with the return line plumbed into it is, at least on my car, connected to the main pickup on the sender. Is this correct? If the main line is actually the other one (without the return line attached, then it will be drawing from the reserve pickup in bottom of the tank, through the little mesh filter. I could conceive of that causing trouble if it's picked up a bit of shit over the last few days.
 
Whilst poking about my recalcitrant carburettors today, I removed the insulation piece from the front of the heater box and subjected it to a mighty clean. It is now on my workbench, thoroughly drenched in thinned matte black acrylic paint. I will let it dry overnight and then give it a good thick coat tomorrow. This technique worked wonders on my underbonnet insulation, which is now very black and presentable, and will likely survive many more years now that disintegration has been halted.
 
At last, after four years of seemingly endless work, I finally got to take Brown Rover on a decent open road blast! Wife had to work on Sunday, so I loaded the kids into the old tub and took a chance on it getting us to the beach and back. I had a friend with a salvage trailer on speed dial, but Brown Rover never missed a beat.

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What a pleasurable trip! I worked out that, due to an 8 year lay-up and then four years of (occasionally) rolling refurbishment, it was 2001 that Brown Rover last saw the open road. In that time I've had several modern company vehicles; a Hyundai (the less said the better), a Holden Astra (an endearing little car), a Toyota Corolla (pleasant but dull), and two Mitsubishis (both so-so). I'd completely forgotten what a magic ride the P6 Rover is by comparison to all of those. It helps that Brown Rover is an especially tight and rattle-free example, but the ride quality is astonishing for a car of this age. I'm not even sure my Rover 75, comfy as it is, matches that long travel glide of the P6. Even the handling is secure and sure-footed, once you've reacquainted yourself with that initially disconcerting body roll. Mid-corner bumps and corrugations are barely noticed.

Aside from wind noise above 60 mph (you get used to that), the major disappointment, for me, is the Borg-Warner slush box. It doesn't do the Rover's performance any favours at all. I noticed how at around the 62 mph mark, the engine was spinning at an indicated 3000-3200 rpm, but taking my foot off the accelerator immediately dropped the revs to 2800 rpm before the car started to slow down. This seems an excessive amount of torque converter slippage but I can't really recall how it used to be: perhaps Harvey would like to comment if he sees this. The box (with 98,000 miles under its belly) has had a proper flush through with new fluid and a new filter, and seems to be otherwise working well. Bring on that ZF box with its lock-up torque converter?

Despite a thirsty V8, torque converter slippage, the aerodynamics of a house, and a few decent prods at the loud pedal along the way, the car achieved 25.5 mpg for the day's expedition, a mix of open road and town driving. I won't complain. The best I ever got back in the day was about 27 mpg on a 120 mile round trip that involved going downhill with a tail wind both ways, no hills, virtually no corners and a steady 60 mph all the way there and back.

Welcome back, Brown Rover!
 
fantastic :) I'm not sure about exact rpms (as mine doesnt have a rev counter) but that sounds about right to me....

But harvey is da man :)
 
WarrenL said:
the major disappointment, for me, is the Borg-Warner slush box. It doesn't do the Rover's performance any favours at all. I noticed how at around the 62 mph mark, the engine was spinning at an indicated 3000-3200 rpm, but taking my foot off the accelerator immediately dropped the revs to 2800 rpm before the car started to slow down. This seems an excessive amount of torque converter slippage but I can't really recall how it used to be
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I'd say the most likely problem if there is any would be the tacho being inaccurate. I'd expect those sorts of rpm at those speeds, and coming off the throttle will indicate a larger rpm drop than actual.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong (I often am, to the surprise of many), but I thought the car was geared for 3000 rpm at 70 mph. Can't remember where I read that, but it's strongly lodged in my head.

Interestingly, I went past one of those "Your Speed Is" mobile signs while driving on Sunday and ended up circling past it a handful of times to check out my newly lubricated and mostly steady speedo at different velocities, and it appears to be as accurate as you could possibly hope for.
 
WarrenL said:
Correct me if I'm wrong (I often am, to the surprise of many), but I thought the car was geared for 3000 rpm at 70 mph. Can't remember where I read that, but it's strongly lodged in my head.
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Roughly working that out in my head that would mean you'd be doing over 125mph at the start of the redline, and I think that's a bit optomistic.
 
Ah, but nobody said you HAD to make redline in top gear! It's a busy little V8 on the open road then, but I guess it was perfectly acceptable in 1968 or so.

I'm not sure that I'd really want to drive a standard P6B at 125 mph. I did crack the ton a handful of times back in the day (when I was younger and more optimistic), and I recall that by about 90 mph or so the steering was starting to become a little vague.
 
Yes there is a certain light feeling vagueness when you pass the 100 mph mark at 106 or 110 indicated I did feel that I did not want to stay at those warp speeds words such as "I can'nee control it any more Capt'n Kirk" you get the distinct "no room for error" feeling very strongly no need to say this was all pretty much straight-line stuff though on undulating Dunedin roads. I haven tried mine since the tyre, shock and wheel upgrade but think these feeling are more inherent to the spring rates and suspension topology.

Graeme
 
Hi Warren,

Running with tyres of the correct rolling diameter, the gearing translates to 24mph per 1000rpm, so 72mph (115kph) at 3000rpm. When the rolling diameter is less than original, engine rpm will increase for any given road speed.

It is excellent to see Brown Rover out and about and that the experience was worth waiting for. :D

Ron.
 
I can feel the :D :D :D all the way over here in Blighty! That must have been really satisfying.

The vague front end at high speeds is thanks to the front undertray shape. Fitting the little "Police" spolers, or the full monty reconstructed undertray as per Lucky, cures this. But the wind noise and drivetrain noise at those speeds puts me off anyway.

I do think you have slightly more convertor slip than normal. My recollection is that 3,000 is about 65 in Lucky. Bit we are within the limits of instrument error there. And yes, I agree, bring on the ZF! Red line in top is entirely feasible. Lucky has had a brief excursion to 122, so they can do it.

But do have a few more excursions like that first!

Chris
 
Look at those big fat tyres Ron! I can't imagine for a moment that they'd be undersized! However I'll check the size and report back.

Those ZF boxes are sitting in the back of the garage waiting attention Chris, but I want to drive the car for a decent while before pulling it to bits again!
 
There are a multitude of jobs still to do (and always will be) but it is SUCH A PLEASURE to be able to jump in my Rover and puddle about in it WHENEVER I WANT TO! The family are having trouble dragging me out from behind the wheel, and they've all had to go hungry whilst I steal all the housekeeping to put gas in the guzzly brute's tank. But I haven't been happier these past few days than when cruising down the street. The Rover feels lovely and tall (maybe that's an effect of the snug cabin?). There's a great view over the bonnet with its suggestive bulges which you just don't get in moderns with their heavily raked, forward set windscreens, their low seating and their heavy airbag-riddled dashboards. I love the Rover's smell, and the way it glides imperviously over Christchurch's bumpy post-earthquake roads. Most of all I love that glorious V8 hum in the background. I could listen to it all day! Coming from a raft of modern cars, there's still nothing I'd rather cruise around in than Brown Rover.
 
After the Birdlings Flat shakedown and a bit of round-town running, Brown Rover is now as ready as it ever will be for its first big trip rather a long time. Good Friday will see the old beast ferrying me, a friend and my son north from Christchurch to Blenheim for the Omaka Classic Fighters Airshow, then over to Nelson to drop the friend off so he can retrieve his car and drive it back to Christchurch in convoy with my son and me. Look it up on the map, non-Kiwis, and tell me if I'm mad to place my faith in a 41 year old car of so-far unproven reliability to take me through hundreds of kilometres of mostly unpopulated wilderness.
 
WarrenL said:
After the Birdlings Flat shakedown and a bit of round-town running, Brown Rover is now as ready as it ever will be for its first big trip rather a long time. Good Friday will see the old beast ferrying me, a friend and my son north from Christchurch to Blenheim for the Omaka Classic Fighters Airshow, then over to Nelson to drop the friend off so he can retrieve his car and drive it back to Christchurch in convoy with my son and me. Look it up on the map, non-Kiwis, and tell me if I'm mad to place my faith in a 41 year old car of so-far unproven reliability to take me through hundreds of kilometres of mostly unpopulated wilderness.
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Warren, I have the Elegant Thirsty DInosaur insured with Swann and they include breakdown recovery as part of the package. Costs me about $27 a month. That`s with an agreed valuation policy of $8k

I see no reason not to go on your jaunt. Remember, in the 70`s these were the only cars people had and they generally got to where they wanted to go. In addition, enthusiasts cars are actively maintained which gives a further level of confidence.

I`d still take a decent toolkit with me!

Classic Fighters Omaka is a cracking airshow. I flew to it in 2003 (pre kids when I could afford flying!). The scenery around that part of the world is great..

Cheers
 
My tongue is in my cheek, Mr Lungs. I'm quietly confident that Brown Rover will last the trip quite well after all the recent work. However, a 41 year old car is a 41 year old car, and one must be prepared. I have thus packed a toolbox with all the essentials and it is stowed in the boot in preparation. I know a great number of people (some of them mechanically minded) heading to the show from Christchurch, including my mechanic, so if I stop unexpectedly on the side of the road I should simply be able to wave down a friend or wait for John. :)

Talking about insurance, with the old tub finally lumbering about the streets again I shopped around for a policy and ended up going with AA's classic car scheme. Based on the cost of the car, and what I've spent getting it up to scratch, hence what it would take to get back into an equivalent classic car in similar condition, I asked them for an agreed value of $20K and they didn't even blink! No valuation required, in fact no hassle at all once they'd established a few facts about the car. Cost me $190 for the year, but that's subject to less than 5000kms per annum, and there's no breakdown assistance. But if the worst happened (God forbid, it'd break my heart), I'd at least be flush enough to think about another car.

I'm sure that Omaka will be great, but it's the cruise north that I'm really excited about. It's been 12 years since Brown Rover ventured so far, and I can't wait to settle back in the sheepskins and just waft along the road with the V8 soundtrack playing all the way.
 
That sounds like pretty good value for the insurance, Warren. Admittedly I do have the track / race extension (I have a long term plan to enter the Targa Tour one year)..

Good luck with the trip. I`m sure the old girl will do you proud.

Cheers
 
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